Diseño de un Sistema Didáctico de Refrigeración por Compresión de Vapor con Refrigerante de bajo Impacto Ambiental

Abstract

Nowadays, human actions have been the main cause of climate change, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. In addition, gases such as carbon dioxide and methane cause the greenhouse effect and these pollutants are produced in the industrial sector [1]. Moreover, Latin America and the Caribbean represents 8.3% of global emissions [2], despite not being such a high percentage is essential that each country contributes to the provisions of the Paris agreement. In industrial processes such as refrigeration and air conditioning substances that deteriorate the ozone layer are used in their chemical process. This equipment works with second-generation refrigerants (HCFCs and HFCs) [3]. HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) classified as ozone depleting substances (ODS) and global warming potentials (GWP) have a GWP of the order of 725 to 2.310 and HFCs (hydro fluorocarbons) contain a GWP of 675 to 2.088 [4]. It is assessed that HFC refrigerants represent 1.1% of pollutant gas emissions, but their impact is 1300 times higher than CO2 [13], due to these particularities of the substances is established that contribute significantly to climate change. For 2018, the RAC (Refrigeration and Air Conditioning) sector presented a stock of 3.6 billion equipment, and annual sales were more than 350 million units; therefore herefore, it is projected that by 2050 the stock will increase to 9,5 billion equipment [5]. If over the years the efficiency of these teams is not improved climate damage will be presented higher than today, because the vapor compression refrigeration systems account for approximately 30% of energy consumption worldwide [6]. In Colombia, the industrial sector consumes about 8% of electricity in refrigeration and air conditioning processes, however, stand out subsectors such as food, beverages and pharmaceuticals where this figure increases to a value between 20% to 30% [7]. On the other hand, the RAC sector in the country has the highest consumption of ODS / HCF substances, and represents 50% of total consumption of HCFCs [8] [5], also the HFC represents 98% of consumption in this sector [5]. For the above mentioned ACAIRE (Colombian Association of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration) recognizes the difficulty of teaching refrigeration cycles based only on theory. In addition, for this association new challenges are predicted, because the refrigeration and air conditioning section will present an increase in demand 72% [9]. Therefore, technical education is necessary to promote more advanced skills and analyze possible scenarios of the refrigeration industry, and in turn encourage the use of alternative refrigerants. Some of the courses that most require